8mm Forum: True Grit. 1 x 800ft Marketing Colour Sound

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Topic: True Grit. 1 x 800ft Marketing Colour Sound

Tom Photiou
Film God

Posts: 4837
From: Plymouth U.K
Registered: Dec 2003

posted June 19, 2017 03:30 PM

I wasn't going to do a full review of this film but i do have to say that along side a few of my other marketting films, namely, War of the Worlds, Warriors, Escape from Alcatraz and the Hunter, this one has to be on Agfa stock. Plus i cant see one has been done for this title yet.
The print is superb in every way, rich colours and excellent sound, hardly a mark worth mentioning. Like all the second faze releases this one has letraset titles with a simple The End title to finish it up. Supplied on this reel when we bought it so unfortunately dont have the original boxes. The classic John Wayne Western with a great cast including Robert Duvall this one is edited "OK" as it starts off in the court room so if you have never seen it before it sort of takes you by surprise but we all know how crap the marketing editors were, however, aside the beginning it is actually OK. Defiantly one for the big home screen, if only they did this one in scope. Just look at these screenshots which really do not do it any justice.

Here is the plot edited to this 800 ft version.
Frank Ross's young daughter, Mattie (Kim Darby), travels to Fort Smith, Arkansas, where she hires ageing U.S. Marshal Reuben "Rooster" J. Cogburn (John Wayne) to bring Chaney in, (for the murder of her Father not shown in this abridged version),). Mattie has heard that Cogburn has "true grit." She gives him a payment to track and capture Chaney, who has taken up with outlaw "Lucky" Ned Pepper (Robert Duvall) in Indian Territory (modern-day Oklahoma).
A young Texas Ranger, La Boeuf (Glen Campbell), is also pursuing Chaney and joins forces with Cogburn, After several days, the three discover horse thieves Emmett Quincy (Jeremy Slate) and Moon (Dennis Hopper), who are waiting for Ned Pepper at a remote dugout cabin. Cogburn captures and interrogates the two men. Moon's leg is injured and Cogburn uses the injury as leverage to get information about Lucky Ned. In terrible pain and about to talk, Moon is stabbed by Quincy, who is then killed by Cogburn. In the remaining minute before Moon dies, he reveals that Pepper and his gang are due at the cabin that night to get fresh mounts.
Rooster and La Boeuf lay a trap. But as soon as Pepper and his men arrive, La Boeuf blows their cover by firing too soon. A firefight ensues, during which Cogburn and La Boeuf kill two of the gang, but Pepper and the rest of his men escape. Cogburn, La Boeuf, and Mattie make their way to McAlester's store with the dead bodies. Cogburn tries to persuade Mattie to stay at McAlester's, but she refuses.
The three resume their pursuit. Fetching water one morning, Mattie finds herself face-to-face with Chaney in a stream. When he comes toward her menacingly, she shoots Chaney with her father's Colt Dragoon, injuring him and calling out to her partners. Pepper and his gang get there first, capturing her. Lucky Ned then forces Cogburn and La Boeuf to abandon the girl and ride away. Pepper decides to leave Mattie in the care of Chaney, who has lost his horse. He promises he will send a horse back for Chaney, vowing to kill him if any harm comes to the girl.
Cogburn doubles back and attacks Pepper and his gang single-handedly. La Boeuf, meantime, finds Mattie. They watch from a high bluff as a mounted Cogburn confronts Pepper's gang in a classic sequence. Cogburn gives Pepper a choice between being killed right there or surrendering and being hanged in Fort Smith. Calling this "bold talk from a one-eyed fat man," Pepper enrages Cogburn, who charges the four outlaws, guns blazing. He kills two of the gang and mortally wounds Pepper. In the fight, Ned shoots Rooster's horse, trapping Rooster's leg under him as he goes down. As a last act, the wounded Pepper prepares to kill Rooster, until La Boeuf makes a long shot with his Sharps Rifle, doing away with Pepper once and for all.
As La Boeuf and Mattie return to Pepper's camp, Chaney comes out from behind a tree and strikes La Boeuf in the head with a rock, fracturing his skull and knocking him unconscious. Mattie is able to shoot Chaney and wound him, but, driven back by the recoil, falls into a snake pit and breaks her arm. Chaney begins to taunt Mattie about the snakes, whereupon Cogburn appears and shoots Chaney. With great difficulty, Cogburn descends into the pit on a rope to retrieve Mattie, who is bitten by a rattlesnake before Cogburn can kill it. The mortally injured La Boeuf helps them out of the pit, saving their lives. La Boeuf dies from the effort.
Cogburn is forced to leave La Boeuf's body behind as they race to get help for Mattie at McAlester's on Mattie's pony. After stealing a buckboard, they arrive at their destination.
In the epilogue Mattie, her arm in a sling, is back at home recovering from her injuries. She promises Cogburn he will be buried next to her in the Ross family plot after his death. Cogburn reluctantly accepts her offer and leaves, jumping over a fence on his new horse to disprove her good-natured jab that he was too old and fat to clear a four-rail fence, and rides off into the valley below.